Bernard Parmegiani (b. 1927): “De natura sonorum” (1975)
Suite in twelve movements

Digital artist Peter Price will perform live projected visuals to accompany the digital playback. The concert will be preceded by a brief introductory talk by Thomas Patteson.

ABOUT THE EVENT

Building on the acoustic investigations of his teacher Pierre Schaeffer, the founder of musique concrete, French composer Bernard Parmegiani creates what he calls “acousmatic music” — a kind of sonic art conceived especially for presentation through loudspeakers, designed to invoke powerful mental images through the pure play of disembodied sound. Parmegiani’s 1975 composition De natura sonorum is an unrivaled masterpiece in this genre. Each of the work’s 12 movements is an etude in which opposing sonic properties–percussive versus sustained tones, or synthetic versus natural–are played against each other in a highly refined counterpoint of acoustic forms. At once playful and imposing, sensual and cerebral, De natura sonorum leads the listener on a unique exploration of the nature of sound.